Update 2011-03-09: I was wrong! Max returns this Friday, March 11th.

It looks like Jake T. Austin will finally be returning as Max on the hit Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place. Earlier this year Jake’s character Max was turned into a young girl in an unexpected twist and it wasn’t clear how long this change would last. Today Jake T. Austin confirmed in this twitter post that he’s “back on wizards set”.

Jake T. Austin as Max

So when will he be back? According to this twitter post by the show’s writer Todd J. Greenwald they are doing the table reading for the show’s 100th episode today. Max turned into Maxine, played by Bailee Madison, in episode 84 which aired on January 7th. The latest episode to air was episode 86 which aired last Friday. This would mean some 14 more episodes will play before Max’s return, though with Disney Channel’s erratic schedule who can say when this would be.

Bailee Madison as Maxine

Check out more of the cast and crew of Wizards of Waverly Place on Twitter.

This week is tough week to say anything is a big release. Not many big releases to speak of, but have a look for yourself after the jump!
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The fight may have been finished back in 2007 with Halo 3, but thankfully there are still plenty of stories to tell about the Halo universe. One of them is the tale of a group of Orbital Drop Squad Troopers (or Helljumpers as they are nicknamed, and for good reason) and the losing battle they fought in the ill-fated African city of New Mombasa in the period between Halo 2 and Halo 3. You take control of one of these soldiers as you explore the city in an attempt to find out what’s going on. Originally conceived as a downloadable add-on (and originally slated to be called Halo 3: Recon), so much work was put into the story, setting, and characters, that Bungie ended up releasing the game as a standalone 2-disc package available at full retail price. The first disc contains the campaign (which can be played with up to 4 players) and a new mode called firefight where you fight off waves of covenant soldiers similar to Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. The second disc contains every map released for Halo 3, including those released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The game also includes the Forge map editor for creating your own worlds.

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As in “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”.

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Who would have thought a My Little Pony show could be good? Well probably a bunch of little girls, but I’ll tell you who didn’t expect it was this 32 year old man who was already into more girl shows than he should, but in 2010 Hasbro’s new channel The Hub put a new twist on My Little Pony with the new Friendship is Magic series. After playing only 14 episodes the show has gained quite a following from viewers far outside of it’s target demographic of 5 year old girls.

It’s hard to describe just what makes this show so great, but it is instantly recognised when watched. The visuals are top notch. The show is animated in flash, but unlike what many have come to expect from flash animation, it does not do so to render cheap looking visuals, but has top notch animators putting a great deal of work into making it look great.

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During the 16-bit days, it seemed that alongside the Sega vs Nintendo console awards, there was another video game war brewing as well. Ocean was competed directly with Sony Imagesoft and Acclaim to see who could make the worst movie tie-in video game. Or so it would seem that way, as all three companies dumped crap after crap after crap on our consoles with each popular or semi-popular sci-fi and action flick that hit theaters. Every once in a while, there was a gem, like Sony Imagesoft’s Hook, or at least something resembling a gem, like Acclaim’s Stargate. Sadly, most of the product that the three companies collectively produced was only a few steps above of Atari’s “classic” E.T. game. One of the missteps was Ocean’s Lethal Weapon. In this SNES game, you take the role of super-deformed cartoon hunchbacks vaguely resembling Danny Glover and Mel Gibson (before he became an anti-Semite douchebag) as you ice skate through nondescript locations and battling generic looking enemies, all the while overcoming your inability to fire while crouching. Released around the time of the Lethal Weapon 3 movie, video games based on Lethal Weapon also hit the NES, Game Boy, Amiga, and other systems, but this Maximum Letdown focuses on the SNES game. Although I’m sure the other systems have an equally crappy (or worse) Lethal Weapon video game.
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When Transformers Prime finally premieres on February 11 at 6:30PM on The Hub, it appears we will be meeting a new character named Skyquake. Of course all characters in Transformers Prime are new characters with this being the start of a new continuity possibly involving the events from the Transformers Exodus novel and War For Cybertron game (despite numerous contradictions in story). Skyquake isn’t a new name in Transformers history though. The most significant role of Skyquake was leader of the Predators, a faction of Decepticons. He made a brief cameo in IDW’s Last Stand of the Wreckers before being killed by Overlord.

His one-line bio reads: “Entombed in stasis on Earth until exhumed by Starscream; however, pledges allegiance to only his ‘one true master,’ Megatron.”

I’m glad to see more actual characters being added to the cast. I’m not sure how many more scenes of mute Decepticlones I can take.

TVShowsonDVD is reporting that the tv series Challenge of the Gobots is being worked on as a future release from the Warner Archive group. According to the site, a fan named Nick Simmons asked some pretty direct questions on the Warner Archive Collection (WAC) fan page on Facebook. Here is what was said:

Nick – Do you own the rights to Hanna-Barbera’s Challenge of the GoBots cartoon series or its movie GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords? I’d really like to see both on DVD some day.
WAC – The GoBots are heading your way soon!
Nick – Sweet, both the series and the movie then?
WAC – At this point, just the series…..

So why is this significant? This is the main series that went head to head with Hasbro’s Transformers in the 80’s. While Transformers was first with their Marvel comic, GoBots managed to premiere its animated series before the Transformers. Several years ago Hasbro acquired Tonka, the company who brought Bandai’s Machine Robo toys stateside and developed the line into the GoBots brand. It was believed that acquisition included the rights to the animated series, but in recent times that has been brought into question with the possibility that Warner Bros. might actually own those rights since they acquired Hanna-Barbera, the animation house who developed the cartoon itself. No details regarding time frame, pricing or really anything else are known, but the news is sure to please fans.

Here he is, making his fourth Botcon exclusive appearance. Breakdown uses the Animated Rodimus mold with a newly retooled head. I’m hoping we get a G2 version in a souvenir set or attendee exclusive!